Psalm 12

TITLE. This Psalm is headed "To the Chief Musician upon
Sheminith, a Psalm of David," which title is identical with that
of the sixth Psalm, except that Neginoth is here omitted. We have
nothing new to add, and therefore refer the reader to our remarks on
the dedication of Psalm VI. As Sheminith signifies the eighth, the
Arabic version says it is concerning the end of the world, which
shall be the eighth day, and refers it to the coming of the Messiah:
without accepting so fanciful an interpretation, we may read this
song of complaining faith in the light of His coming who shall break
in pieces the oppressor. The subject will be the better before the
mind's eye if we entitle this Psalm: "GOOD THOUGHTS IN BAD
TIMES." It is supposed to have been written while Saul was
persecuting David, and those who favoured his cause.

DIVISION. In the first and second verses David spreads his plaint
before the Lord concerning the treachery of his age; verses 3 and 4
denounce judgments upon proud traitors; in verse 5, Jehovah himself
thunders out his wrath against oppressors; hearing this, the Chief
Musician sings sweetly of the faithfulness of God and his care of his
people, in verses 6 and 7; but closes on the old key of lament in
verse 8, as he observes the abounding wickedness of his times. Those
holy souls who dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar,
may read and sing these sacred stanzas with hearts in full accord
with their mingled melody of lowly mourning and lofty
confidence.

Verse 1. "Help, Lord." A short but sweet, suggestive,
seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of angel's sword, to be
turned every way, and to be used on all occasions. Ainsworth says the
word rendered "help," is largely used for all manner of saving,
helping, delivering, preserving, etc. Thus it seems that the prayer
is very full and instructive. The Psalmist sees the extreme danger of
his position, for a man had better be among lions than among liars;
he feels his own inability to deal with such sons of Belial, for "he
who shall touch them must be fenced with iron;" he therefore turns
himself to his all-sufficient Helper, the Lord, whose help is never
denied to his servants, and whose aid is enough for all their needs.
"Help, Lord," is a very useful ejaculation which we may dart
up to heaven on occasions of emergency, whether in labour, learning,
suffering, fighting, living, or dying. As small ships can sail into
harbours which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot enter, so
our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when our
soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of
devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to
float a more laborious supplication. "For the godly man
ceaseth;" the death, departure, or decline of godly men should be
a trumpet-call for more prayer. They say that fish smell first at the
head, and when godly men decay, the whole commonwealth will soon go
rotten. We must not, however, be rash in our judgment on this point,
for Elijah erred in counting himself the only servant of God alive,
when there were thousands whom the Lord held in reserve. The present
times always appear to be peculiarly dangerous, because they are
nearest to our anxious gaze, and whatever evils are rife are sure to
be observed, while the faults of past ages are further off, and are
more easily overlooked. Yet we expect that in the latter days,
"because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold," and
then we must the more thoroughly turn from man, and address ourselves
to the Churches' Lord, by whose help the gates of hell shall be kept
from prevailing against us. "The faithful fail from among the
children of men;" when godliness goes, faithfulness inevitably
follows; without fear of God, men have no love of truth. Common
honesty is no longer common, when common irreligion leads to
universal godlessness. David had his eye on Doeg, and the men of Ziph
and Keilah, and perhaps remembered the murdered priests of Nob, and
the many banished ones who consorted with him in the cave of Adullam,
and wondered where the state would drift without the anchors of its
godly and faithful men. David, amid the general misrule, did not
betake himself to seditious plottings, but to solemn petitionings;
nor did he join with the multitude to do evil, but took up the arms
of prayer to withstand their attacks upon virtue.

Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his
neighbour." They utter that which is vain to hear, because
of its frivolous, foolish, want of worth; vain to believe,
because it was false and lying; vain to trust to, since it was
deceitful and flattering; vain to regard, for it lifted up the
hearer, filling him with proud conceit of himself. It is a sad thing
when it is the fashion to talk vanity. "Ca'me, and I'll ca'thee." is
the old Scotch proverb; give me a high sounding character, and I will
give you one. Compliments and fawning congratulations are hateful to
honest men; they know that if they take they must give them, and they
scorn to do either. These accommodation-bills are most admired by
those who are bankrupt in character. Bad are the times when every man
thus cajoles and cozens his neighbour. "With flattering lips and
with a double heart do they speak." He who puffs up another's
heart, has nothing better than wind in his own. If a man extols me to
my face, he only shows me one side of his heart, and the other is
black with contempt for me, or foul with intent to cheat me. Flattery
is the sign of the tavern where duplicity is the host. The Chinese
consider a man of two hearts to be a very base man, and we shall be
safe in reckoning all flatteries to be such.

Verses 3, 4. Total destruction shall overwhelm the lovers of
flattery and pride, but meanwhile how they hector and fume! Well did
the apostle call them "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own
shame." Free-thinkers are generally very free-talkers, and they are
never more at ease than when railing at God's dominion, and
arrogating to themselves unbounded license. Strange is it that the
easy yoke of the Lord should so gall the shoulders of the proud,
while the iron bands of Satan they bind about themselves as chains of
honour: they boastfully cry unto God, "Who is lord over us?" and hear
not the hollow voice of the evil one, who cries from the infernal
lake, "I am your lord, and right faithfully do ye serve me." Alas,
poor fools, their pride and glory shall be cut off like a fading
flower! May God grant that our soul may not be gathered with them. It
is worthy of observation that flattering lips, and tongues speaking
proud things, are classed together: the fitness of this is clear, for
they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters another, and the
second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their right hands.
One generally imagines that flatterers are such mean parasites, so
cringing and fawning, that they cannot be proud; but the wise man
will tell you that while all pride is truly meanness, there is in the
very lowest meanness no small degree of pride. Caesar's horse is even
more proud of carrying Caesar, than Caesar is of riding him. The mat on
which the emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vaingloriously, crying out,
"I cleaned the imperial boots." None are so detestably domineering as
the little creatures who creep into office by cringing to the great;
those are bad times, indeed, in which these obnoxious beings are
numerous and powerful. No wonder that the justice of God in cutting
off such injurious persons is matter for a psalm, for both earth and
heaven are weary of such provoking offenders, whose presence is a
very plague to the people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the
tongues of such boastful flatterers; but the Lord's remedy if sharp
is sure, and is an unanswerable answer to their swelling words of
vanity.

Verse 5. In due season the Lord will hear his elect ones, who cry day
and night unto him, and though he bear long with their oppressors,
yet will he avenge them speedily. Observe that the mere oppression of
saints, however silently they bear it, is in itself a cry to God:
Moses was heard at the Red Sea, though he said nothing; and Hagar's
affliction was heard despite her silence. Jesus feels with his
people, and their smarts are mighty orators with him. By-and-by,
however, they begin to sigh and express their misery, and then
relief comes post-haste. Nothing moves a father like the cries of his
children; he bestirs himself, wakes up his manhood, overthrows the
enemy, and sets his beloved in safety. A puff is too much for
the child to bear, and the foe is so haughty, that he laughs the
little one to scorn; but the Father comes, and then it is the child's
turn to laugh, when he is set above the rage of his tormentor. What
virtue is there in a poor man's sighs, that they should move the
Almighty God to arise from his throne. The needy did not dare to
speak, and could only sigh in secret, but the Lord heard, and could
rest no longer, but girded on his sword for the battle. It is a fair
day when our soul brings God into her quarrel, for when his bare arm
is seen, Philistia shall rue the day. The darkest hours of the
Church's night are those which precede the break of day. Man's
extremity is God's opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when
his needy ones shall sigh, as if all hope had gone for ever. O Lord,
set thy now near at hand, and rise up speedily to our help.
Should the afflicted reader be able to lay hold upon the promise of
this verse, let him gratefully fetch a fulness of comfort from it.
Gurnall says, "As one may draw out the wine of a whole hogshead at
one tap, so may a poor soul derive the comfort of the whole covenant
to himself through one promise, if he be able to apply it." He who
promises to set us in safety, means thereby preservation on earth,
and eternal salvation in heaven.

Verse 6. What a contrast between the vain words of man, and the pure
words of Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the Lord's
promises are yea and amen. For truth, certainty, holiness,
faithfulness, the words of the Lord are pure as well-refined silver.
In the original there is an allusion to the most severely-purifying
process known to the ancients, through which silver was passed when
the greatest possible purity was desired; the dross was all consumed,
and only the bright and precious metal remained; so clear and free
from all alloy of error or unfaithfulness is the book of the words of
the Lord. The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution,
literary criticism, philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery, and
has lost nothing but those human interpretations which clung to it as
alloy to precious ore. The experience of saints has tried it in every
conceivable manner, but not a single doctrine or promise has been
consumed in the most excessive heat. What God's words are, the words
of his children should be. If we would be Godlike in conversation, we
must watch our language, and maintain the strictest purity of
integrity and holiness in all our communications.

Verse 7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as to be
baited by their cruelty, or polluted by their influence, is an evil
to be dreaded beyond measure; but it is an evil foreseen and provided
for in the text. In life many a saint has lived a hundred years
before his age, as though he had darted his soul into the brighter
future, and escaped the mists of the beclouded present: he has gone
to his grave unreverenced and misunderstood, and lo! as generations
come and go, upon a sudden the hero is unearthed, and lives in the
admiration and love of the excellent of the earth; preserved for ever
from the generation which stigmatised him as a sower of sedition, or
burned him as a heretic. It should be our daily prayer that we may
rise above our age as the mountain-tops above the clouds, and may
stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the mists of
ignorance and sin which roll around us. O Eternal Spirit, fulfil in
us the faithful saying of this verse! Our faith believes those two
assuring words, and cries, "Thou shalt," "thou shalt."

Verse 8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made
the psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of
wickedness. When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no
better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so does a sinner in
honour foster vice everywhere. Our turf would not so swarm with
abominables if those who are styled honourables did not give their
countenance to the craft. Would to God that the glory and triumph of
our Lord Jesus would encourage us to walk and work on every side; as
like acts upon like, since an exalted sinner encourages sinners, our
exalted Redeemer must surely excite, cheer, and stimulate his saints.
Nerved by a sight of his reigning power we shall meet the evils of
the times in the spirit of holy resolution, and shall the more
hopefully pray, "Help, Lord."

Verse 1. "Help, Lord." 'Twas high time to call to
heaven for help, when Saul cried, "Go, kill me up the priests of
Jehovah" (the occasion as it is thought of making this Psalm), and
therein committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, as some grave
divines are of opinion. 1 Samuel 22:17. David, after many sad
thoughts about that slaughter, and the occasion of it, Doeg's
malicious information, together with the paucity of his fast friends,
and the multitude of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth
abruptly into these words, "Help, Lord," help at a dead lift.
The Arabic version hath it, Deliver me by main force, as with
weapons of war, for "the Lord is a man of war." Exodus 15:3. John
Trapp.

Verse 1. "The faithful." "A faithful man," as a
parent, a reprover, an adviser, one "without guile," "who can
find?" Proverbs 20:6. Look close. View thyself in the glass of
the word. Does thy neighbour or thy friend, find thee faithful
to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the attempt
to speak what is agreeable oft made at the expense of truth? Are not
professions of regard sometimes utterly inconsistent with our real
feelings? In common life, where gross violations are restrained, a
thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall between
sin and duty, and, judged by the divine standard, are indeed guilty
steps upon forbidden ground. Charles Bridges, 1850.

Verse 1. A "faithful" man must be, first of all,
faithful to himself; then, he must be faithful to God; and then, he
must be faithful to others, particularly the church of God. And this,
as it regards ministers, is of peculiar importance. Joseph
Irons, 1840.

Verse 1. Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in the way
when a company of unruly horses run through the streets in full
career, presently whips up her child in her arms and taketh him home;
or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head, clucks and
gathers her chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a purpose
to bring a heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with him to
call and cull out to himself such as are his dearly beloved. He takes
his choice servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed
a little before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died
before Heidelburg was sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany
was overrun with war and bloodshed. Ed. Dunsterville in a Sermon
at the Funeral of Sir Sim. Harcourt, 1642.

Verse 1. "Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth,"
etc.:

Back, then, complainer, loathe thy life no more,
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,
That day by day in prayer like thine arise;
Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.
Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.

John Keble, 1792-1866.

Verses 1, 2, 4. Consider our markets, our fairs, our private
contracts and bargains, our shops, our cellars, our weights, our
measures, our promises, our protestations, our politic tricks and
villainous Machiavelism, our enhancing of the prices of all
commodities, and tell, whether the twelfth Psalm may not as fitly be
applied to our times as to the days of the man of God; in which the
feigning, and lying, and facing, and guile, and subtlety of men
provoked the psalmist to cry out, "Help, Lord; for there is not a
godly man left: for the faithful are failed from among the children
of men: they speak deceitfully every one with his neighbour,
flattering with their lips, and speak with a double heart, which have
said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is
Lord over us?" R. Wolcombe, 1612.

Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his neighbour:
with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." The
feigned zeal is just like a waterman, that looks one way and rows
another way; for this man pretends one thing and
intends another thing; as Jehu pretended the zeal of God's
glory, but his aim was at his master's kingdom; and his zeal to God's
service was but to bring him to the sceptre of the kingdom. So
Demetrius professed great love unto Diana, but his drift was to
maintain the honour of his profession; and so we have too many that
make great show of holiness, and yet their hearts aim at other ends;
but they may be sure, though they can deceive the world and destroy
themselves, yet not God, who knoweth the secrets of all hearts.
Gr. Williams, 1636.

Verse 2. "They speak vanity."

Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and truth is now no more!

Virgil's Æneid, IV. 373.

Verse 2. "With a double heart." Man is nothing but
insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and
in regard to others. He does not wish that he should be told the
truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these moods, so
inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart.
Blaise Pascal.

Verse 2. "With flattering lips and with a double heart do
they speak." There is no such stuff to make a cloak of as
religion; nothing so fashionable, nothing so profitable: it is a
livery wherein a wise man may serve two masters, God and the world,
and make a gainful service by either. I serve both, and in both
myself, by prevaricating with both. Before man none serves his God
with more devotion; for which, among the best of men, I work my own
ends, and serve myself. In private, I serve the world; not with so
strict devotion, but with more delight; where fulfilling of her
servants' lusts, I work my end and serve myself. The house of prayer
who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties who more forward
than I? I fast with those who fast, that I may eat with those that
eat. I mourn with those that mourn. No hand more open to the cause
than mine, and in their families none prays longer and with louder
zeal. Thus when the opinion of a holy life hath cried the goodness of
my conscience up, my trade can lack no custom, my wares can want no
price, my words can need no credit, my actions can lack no praise. If
I am covetous, it is interpreted providence; if miserable, it is
counted temperance; if melancholy, it is construed godly sorrow; if
merry, it is voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, it is thought the
blessing of a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of conscionable
dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit of holy
conversation; if ill, it is the malice of malignants. Thus I sail
with every wind, and have my end in all conditions. This cloak in
summer keeps me cool, in winter warm, and hides the nasty bag of all
my secret lusts. Under this cloak I walk in public fairly with
applause, and in private sin securely without offence, and officiate
wisely without discovery. I compass sea and land to make a proselyte;
and no sooner made, but he makes me. At a fast I cry Geneva, and at a
feast I cry Rome. If I be poor, I counterfeit abundance to save my
credit; if rich, I dissemble poverty to save charges. I most frequent
schismatical lectures, which I find most profitable; from thence
learning to divulge and maintain new doctrines; they maintain me in
suppers thrice a week. I use the help of a lie sometimes, as a new
stratagem to uphold the gospel; and I colour oppression with God's
judgments executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold an extraordinary
duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed. What I openly reprove
abroad, for my own profit, that I secretly act at home, for my own
pleasure. But stay, I see a handwriting in my heart which damps my
soul. It is charactered in these sad words, "Woe be to you,
hypocrites." Matthew 23:13. Francis Quarle's "Hypocrite's
Soliloquy."

Verse 2. "With flattering lips," etc. The world indeed
says that society could not exist if there were perfect truthfulness
and candour between man and man; and that the world's propriety would
be as much disturbed if every man said what he pleased, as it was in
those days of Israelitish history, when every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. The world is assuredly the best judge of its
own condition and mode of government, and therefore I will not say
what a libel does such a remark contain, but oh, what a picture does
it present of the social edifice, that its walls can be cemented and
kept together only by flattery and falsehood! Barton
Bouchier.

Verse 2. "Flattering lips." The philosopher Bion being
asked what animal he though the most hurtful, replied, "That of wild
creatures a tyrant, and of tame ones a flatterer." The flatterer is
the most dangerous enemy we can have. Raleigh, himself a courtier,
and therefore initiated into the whole art of flattery, who
discovered in his own career and fate its dangerous and deceptive
power, its deep artifice and deeper falsehood, says, "A flatterer is
said to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them
from friendsthey are so obsequious and full of protestations: for
as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend." The Book
of Symbols, 1844.

Verse 2. "They speak with a double heart." The original
is, "A heart and a heart:" one for the church, another for the
change; one for Sundays, another for working-days; one for the king,
another for the pope. A man without a heart is a wonder, but a man
with two hearts is a monster. It is said of Judas, "There were many
hearts in one man;" and we read of the saints, "There was one heart
in many men." Acts 4:32. Dabo illis cor unum; a special
blessing. Thomas Adams.

Verse 2. When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who
expects to find them so to each other, will be much disappointed. The
primitive sincerity will accompany the primitive piety in her flight
from the earth; and then interest will succeed conscience in the
regulation of human conduct, till one man cannot trust another
farther than he holds him by that tie. Hence, by the way, it is, that
though many are infidels themselves, yet few choose to have their
families and dependents such; as judging, and rightly judging, that
true Christians are the only persons to be depended on for the exact
discharge of social duties. George Horne.

Verse 3. "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,"
etc. They who take pleasure in deceiving others, will at the last
find themselves most of all deceived, when the Sun of truth, by the
brightness of his rising, shall at once detect and consume hypocrisy.
George Horne.

Verse 3. "Cut off lips and tongues." May there not be
here an allusion to those terrible but suggestive punishments which
Oriental monarchs were wont to execute on criminals? Lips were cut
off and tongues torn out when offenders were convicted of lying or
treason. So terrible and infinitely more so are the punishments of
sin. C. H. S.

Verses 3, 4. It need not now seem strange to tell you that the
Lord is the owner of our bodies, that he has so much propriety
therein that they are more his than ours. The apostle tells us as
much. 1 Corinthians 6:20. "Glorify God in your bodies which are his."
Our bodies, and every member thereof, are his; for if the whole be
so, no part is exempted. And therefore they speak proud things, and
presumptuously usurped the propriety of God, who said, "Our lips
are our own;" as though their lips had not been his who is Lord
and Owner of all, but they had been lords thereof, and might have
used them as they list. This provoked God to show what right he had
to dispose of such lips and tongues, by cutting them off.
David Clarkson.

Verse 4. "Who have said, With our tongues will we prevail;
who is Lord over us?" So it was: twelve poor and unlearned men on
the one side, all the eloquence of Greece and Rome arrayed on the
other. From the time of Tertullus to that of Julian the apostate,
every species of oratory, learning, wit, was lavished against the
church of God; and the result, like the well-known story of that
dispute between the Christian peasant and the heathen philosopher,
when the latter, having challenged the assembled fathers of a synod
to silence him, was put to shame by the simple faith of the former
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be dumb."
"Who is lord over us?" "Who is the Lord, that I should obey
his voice to let Israel go?" Exodus 5:2. "What is the Almighty, that
we should serve him?" Job 21:15. "Who is that God that shall deliver
you?" Daniel 3:15. Michael Ayguan, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.

Verse 4. "Our lips are our own." If we have to do with
God, we must quit claim to ourselves and look on God as our owner;
but this is fixed in the hearts of men, We will be our own; we will
not consent to the claim which God makes to us: "Our lips are our
own." Wicked men might as well say the same thing of their whole
selves; our bodies, strength, time, parts, etc., are our own, and who
is Lord over us? John Howe.

Verse 4. From the faults of the wicked we must learn three
contrary lessons; to wit: 1. That nothing which we have is our own.
But, 2. Whatsoever is given to us of God is for service to be done to
him. 3. That whatsoever we do or say, we have a Lord over us to whom
we must be answerable when he calleth us to account. David
Dickson.

Verse 5. "For the oppression of the poor," etc. When
oppressors and persecutors do snuff and puff at the people of God,
when they defy them, and scorn them, and think that they can with a
blast of their breath blow them away, then God will arise to
judgment, as the Chaldee has it; at that very nick of time when all
seems to be lost, and when the poor, oppressed, and afflicted people
of God can do nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the
Lord will arise and ease them of their oppressions, and make their
day of extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory,
and his people's good. Matthew 22:6, 7. "And the remnant took his
servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the
king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies and
destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Thomas
Brooks.

Verse 5. Fear ye, whosoever ye be, that do wrong the poor; you
have power and wealth, and the favour of the judges, but they have
the strongest weapons of all, sighings and groanings, which fetch
help from heaven for them. These weapons dig down houses, throw up
foundations, overthrow whole nations. Chrysostom.

Verse 5. "For the sighings of the needy, now will I arise,
saith the Lord." God is pleased to take notice of every
grace, even the least and lowest, and every gracious inclination
in any of his servants. To fear his name is no great matter,
yet these have a promise. To think on his name less, yet set
down in a "book of remembrance." God sets down how many good
thoughts a poor soul hath had. As evil thoughts in wicked men
are taken notice ofthey are the first fruits of the evil heart
(Matthew 15:19)so good thoughts are they which lie uppermost, and
best discover a good heart. A desire is a small matter,
especially of the poor man, yet God regards the desire of the poor,
and calls a good desire the greatest kindness; "The desire of a man
is his kindness." A tear makes no great noise, yet hath a
voice, "God hath heard the voice of my weeping." It is no pleasant
water, yet God bottles it up. A groan is a poor thing, yet is
the best part of a prayer sometimes (Romans 8:26); a sigh is
less, yet God is awakened and raised up by it. Psalm 12:5.
A look is less than all these, yet this is regarded (Jonah
2:4); breathing is less, yet (Lamentations 3:56), the church
could speak of no more; panting is less than breathing, when
one is spent for lack of breath, yet this is all the godly can
sometimes boast of. Psalm 42:1. The description of a godly man is
ofttimes made from his least quod sic. Blessed are the
poor, the meek, they that mourn, and they who
hunger and thirst. Never did Hannah pray better than
when she could get out never a word, but cried, "Hard, hard heart."
Nor did the publican, than when he smote his breast and cried, "Lord,
be merciful to me a sinner." Nor Mary Magdalene, than when she came
behind Christ, sat down, wept, but kept silence. How sweet is music
upon the waters! How fruitful are the lowest valleys! Mourning
hearts are most musical, lowest most fruitful. The good shepherd ever
takes most care of his weak lambs and feeble sheep. The father makes
most of the least, and the mother looks most after the sick child.
How comfortable is that of our Saviour, "It is not the will of your
Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish!" And that heaven is not to be entered but by such as are like
the little child. John Sheffield, 1654.

Verse 5. "The oppression of the poor." Insolent and
cruel oppressing of the poor is a sin that brings desolating and
destroying judgments upon a people. God sent ten wasting judgments
one after another upon Pharaoh, his people, and land, to revenge the
cruel oppression of his poor people. "Rob not the poor, because he is
poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will
plead their cause." Proverbs 22:22, 23. To rob and oppress the rich
is a great sin; but to rob and oppress the poor is a greater; but to
rob and oppress the poor because he is poor, and wants money to buy
justice, is the top of all inhumanity and impiety. To oppress anyone
is sin; but to oppress the oppressed is the height of sin. Poverty,
and want, and misery, should be motives to pity; but oppressors make
them the whetstone of their cruelty and severity, and therefore the
Lord will plead the cause of his poor oppressed people against their
oppressors without fee or fear; yea, he will plead their cause with
pestilence, blood, and fire. Gog was a great oppressor of the poor
(Ezekiel 38:8-14), and God pleads against him with pestilence, blood,
and fire (verse 22); "and I will plead against him, with pestilence
and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and
upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and
great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thomas Brooks.

Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words," etc.
How beautifully is this verse introduced, by way of contrast to what
was said before concerning! Do sinners talk of vanity? let saints
then speak of Jesus and his gospel. Do they talk impure words? then
let the faithful use the pure words of God, which like silver, the
more used, the more melted in the fire, the more precious will they
be. It is true, indeed, despisers will esteem both God and his word
as trifling; but oh, what an unknown treasure doth the word, the
promises, the covenant relation of the divine things of Jesus
contain! They are more to be desired than gold, yea, than pure gold;
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Robert Hawker.

Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words," etc.
They that purify silver to the purpose, use to put it in the fire
again and again, that it may be thoroughly tried. So is the truth of
God; there is scarce any truth but hath been tried over and over
again, and still if any dross happens to mingle with it, then God
calls it in question again. If in former times there have been
Scriptures alleged that have not been pertinent to prove it, that
truth shall into the fire again, that what is dross may be burnt up;
the Holy Ghost is so curious, so delicate, so exact, he cannot bear
that falsehood should be mingled with the truths of the gospel. This
is the reason, therefore, why that God doth still, age after age,
call former things in question, because that there is still some
dross one way or other mingled with them; either in the stating the
opinions themselves, or else in the Scriptures that are brought and
alleged for them, that have passed for current, for he will never
leave till he have purified them. The doctrine of God's free grace
hath been tried over and over, and over again. Pelagius begins, and
he mingles his dross with it: he saith, grace is nothing but nature
in man. Well, his doctrine was purified, and a great deal of dross
purged out. Then come the semi-Pelagians, and they part stakes; they
say, nature can do nothing without grace, but they make nature to
concur with grace, and to have an influence as well as grace; and the
dross of that was burnt up. The Papists, they take up the same
quarrel, but will neither be Pelagians nor semi-Pelagians, yet still
mingle dross. The Arminians, they come, and they refine popery in
that point anew; still they mingle dross. God will have this truth
tried seven times in the fire, til he hath brought it forth as pure
as pure may be. And I say it is because that truth is thus precious.
Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 6. The Scripture is the sun; the church is the clock.
The sun we know to be sure, and regularly constant in his motions;
the clock, as it may fall out, may go too fast or too slow. As then,
we should condemn him of folly that should profess to trust the clock
rather than the sun, so we cannot but justly tax the credulity of
those who would rather trust to the church than to the Scripture.
Bishop Hall.

Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words." Men
may inspect detached portions of the Book, and please themselves with
some things, which at first view, have the semblance of conniving at
what is wrong. But let them read it, let them read the whole of it;
let them carry along in their minds the character of the persons to
which the different portions of it were addressed; the age of the
world, and the circumstances under which the different parts of it
were written, and the particular objects which even those portions of
it have in view, which to an infidel mind appear the most
exceptionable; and they may be rationally convinced that, instead of
originating in the bosom of an impostor, it owes its origin to men
who wrote "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Let them scrutinise
it with as much severity as they please; only let their scrutiny be
well informed, wisely directed, and with a fair and ingenuous mind,
and we have no fears for the issue. There are portions of it on which
ignorance and folly have put constructions that are forced and
unnatural, and which impure minds have viewed in shadows reflected
from their own impurity. Montesquieu said of Voltaire, Lorsque
Voltaire lit un livre, il le fait, puis il ècrit contre ce qu'il a
fait: "When Voltaire reads a book, he makes it what he pleases,
and then writes against what he has made." It is no difficult matter
to besmear and blot its pages and then impute the foul stains that
men of corrupt minds have cast upon it, to its stainless Author. But
if we honestly look at it as it is, we shall find that like its
Author, it is without blemish and without spot. Gardiner Spring,
D.D.

Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." The
expression may import two things: first, the infallible certainty of
the word; and, secondly, the exact purity. First, the infallible
certainty of the word, as gold endureth in the fire when the dross is
consumed. Vain conceits comfort us not in a time of trouble: but the
word of God, the more it is tried, the more you will find the
excellency of itthe promise is tried, as well as we are tried, in
deep afflictions; but when it is so, it will be found to be most
pure. "The word of the Lord is tried; he is a buckler to all those
who trust in him" (Proverbs 30:5); as pure gold suffers no loss by
the fire, so the promises suffer no loss when they are tried, but
stand to us in our greatest troubles. Secondly, it notes the exact
perfection of the word: there is no dross in silver and gold that
hath been often refined; so there is no defect in the word of God.
Thomas Manton.

Verse 6. Fry thus translates this verse:

The words of Jehovah are pure words
Silver refined in the crucible
Gold, seven times washed from the earth.

(Heb.) though sometimes applied to express the purity of silver, is
more strictly an epithet of gold, from the peculiar method made use
of in separating it from the soil by repeated washings and
decantations. John Fry, in loc.

Verse 6. "Seven times." I cannot but admit that there
may be a mystic meaning in the expression "seven times," in allusion
to the seven periods of the church, or to that perfection, implied in
the figure seven, to which it is to be brought at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. This will be more readily allowed by those who admit of
the prophetic interpretation of the seven epistles of the Book of
Revelation. W. Wilson, D. D., in loc.

Verse 8. "When the vilest men are exalted:" Hebrew,
vilities, outidanoi the abstract for the concrete,
quisquiliae, outidanoi. Oft, empty vessels swim aloft, rotten
posts are gilt with adulterate gold, the worst weeds spring up
bravest. Chaff will get to the top of the fan, when good corn, as it
lieth at the bottom of the heap, so it falls low at the feet of the
fanner. The reason why wicked men "walk" on every side, are so
brisk, so busy (and who but they?) is given to be this, because
losels and rioters were exalted. See Proverbs 28:12, 18 and 29:2. As
rheums and catarrhs fall from the head to the lungs, and cause a
consumption of the whole body, so it is in the body politic. As a
fish putrefies first in the head and then in all the parts, so here.
Some render the text thus, "When they (that is, the wicked)
are exalted," it is a "shame for the sons of men," that
other men who better deserve preferment, are not only slighted, but
vilely handled by such worthless ambitionists, who yet the higher
they climb, as apes, the more they discover their deformities."
John Trapp.

Verse 8. Good thus translates this verse:

Should the wicked advance on every side;
Should the dregs of the earth be uppermost?

The original is given literally. (Heb.) means "foeces, foeculences,
dregs. (Heb.) is here an adverb, and imports uppermost, rather
than exalted. J. Mason Good, in loc.

Verse 1. Whole verse.I. The fact bewaileddescribe
godly and faithful, and show how they fail.II. The feeling excited. Mourning
the loss, fears for church, personal need of such companions, appeal
to God.III. The forebodings aroused.
Failure of the cause, judgments impending, etc.IV. The faith remaining: "Help,
Lord."

Verse 1. Intimate connection between yielding honour to God
and honesty to man, since they decline together.

Verse 2. (first clause). A discourse upon the
prevalence and perniciousness of vain talk.

Verse 2. The whole verse. Connection between flattery
and treachery.

Verse 2. "A double heart." Right and wrong kinds of
hearts, and the disease of duplicity.

Verse 3. God's hatred of those twin sins of the lipsFlattery
and Pride (which is self flattery). Why he hates them. How he shows
his hatred. In whom he hates them most. How to be cleansed from
them.

Verses 3, 4.I. The revolt of the tongue. Its
claim of power, self-possession, and liberty. Contrast this and the
believer's confession, "we are not our own."II. The method of its rebellion
"flattery, and speaking proud things."III. The end of its treason"cut
off."

Verse 5. The Lord arousedHow! Why! What to do! When!

Verse 5. Last clause. Peculiar danger of believers from
those who despise them and their special safety. Good practical
topic.

Verse 6. The purity, trial, and permanency of the words of the
Lord.

Seven crucibles in which believers try the word. A little thought
will suggest these.

Verse 7. Preservation from one's generation in this life and
for ever. A very suggestive theme.

Verse 8. Sin in high places specially infectious. Call
to the rich and prominent to remember their responsibility.
Thankfulness for honourable rulers. Discrimination to be used in
choice of our representatives, or civic magistrates.